Author: Preach Word

All religions are not same. Religions are exclusive, not inclusive. Each religion's claims are radically different in some aspects while similar in some other aspects. As far as religions are concerned, all roads do not lead to the same destination. Just like the word 'science' is a general/broader term but each branch of Science is vast, deep, and different; so are the claims/ideologies of each religion. I am a seeker of the truth, willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads. This search for truth has led me to the Bible.

From friends for mischief to partners in crime!

How kids can easily transform from friends for mischief to partners in crime!

When school kids are not educated or warned or deterred when they get involved in doing mischiefs in a neighborhood (be it their own or a community that they pass through when walking back home from school), there is a high possibility they might eventually turn out to be ‘partners in crime’ later if left to themselves.

It is probably the fact behind many juveniles going/returning to prison sooner or later in America today (and any place for that matter)?

But it all starts at home. Let me illustrate. Once, as a child, I picked up or stole ‘a single peanut’ from a street vendor just to impress friends/peers while walking back home from middle school. The vendor reported to my Mom. Immediately, my Mom handed me over to be disciplined to the Vendor telling him: ‘I do not want to grow a thief in my house.’ Well, long story short, eventually, I was sent home with a strong admonition from the vendor as he knew me (I was not a habitual thief) and my family quite well. That was my first and last shoplifting!

The incident was immediately embossed on to my mind. I never forgot that incident and the location where it happened though I have forgotten the Vendor’s name. Though, at the moment, I hated my Mom for a little while, it left a lasting impression on my life: “never do it again even for fun”

Recently, a school boy passing through the neighborhood we recently moved to tried to steal a push scooter that I had bought for my daughter. She had left the scooter near the garage door as I hurried her up to come with me to pick up her sister from school. When we came back, my kids were busy with their homework and completely forgot about the scooter. This boy had the guts to walk (actually run according to the neighbor) about 20 feet close to the garage on my driveway! Another neighbor caught him red handed while he was running/riding away with my daughter’s razor scooter and called the police .

I was surprised to see an officer at my door ringing my door bell! I opened the door and the officer explained what happened and asked me if I wanted to press charges against this boy. I declined to press charges.

When the officer told the boy I did not press charges against him, he turned and thanked me. Later, the police required that one of his parents come pick him up: did not let him walk home that day. Thirty minutes later, his parent/guardian (probably what looked like his Mom) did come in an SUV and picked him up from the location where he was caught.

Months later, I happened to meet the same officer at another incident/location (it was an accident this time) in the same neighborhood. The officer told me that the same boy was involved in many other such incidents in multiple neighborhoods. I was shocked. I/we thought he learnt the lesson. I was wrong.

This is what prompted me to write this article.

Here is a real life example of a ‘partners in crime!’ incident in the 1990s.

Credit Card Crises : Millions have sunk into various kinds of credit card crises ! Here’s how to get out of your credit card debt!

Here are some proven advice on how to get out of your credit card crises. This is NOT a quick fix! Most people sank into it slowly. So, don’t expect to come out of it quickly; it is a slow and steady process. It is possible. Many have attained the freedom from debt. You can too.

Here, I agree with one exception. If you are building your credit, go ahead but make sure you pay the full balance every month before the due date.

Be Wary of Credit Card “Rewards”

The rewards you can earn from credit cards, while a nice perk, are worth far less than the extra interest you\’ll accrue if you can\’t pay off the money you spend to earn such bonuses.

Yes, there is a kind of deception included in the “rewards.”

Say “No” to Cash Advances

Credit card companies employ tactics such as sending you checks in the mail as often as once a week and encouraging you to use them to pay bills or treat yourself to something nice, but only in the fine print do they mention that these checks are considered a cash advance.

The main reason why taking a cash advance is such a bad idea is that you start accruing interest the minute you take the advance – unlike with regular credit card purchases, there is often no grace period!

Medical bills can be overwhelmingly expensive, especially if you’re uninsured. If you’re having trouble paying your medical bills, negotiate an agreement with the hospital or other company to whom you owe money.

Normally, medical bills are not counted against your credit history. So, you don’t make it count by using your credit card to pay for them! Medical bills are a major cause of bankruptcy in America. Negotiate with the hospital, clinic, your insurance company or the medical service provider on reducing the medical bill amounts.

Don’t Ignore Your Debt!

Some people become so stressed out or embarrassed by their credit card debt that they simply stop opening their bills and pretend that the problem isn’t there. While this tactic may appear to work for a month or two, it’s a bad approach because while you’re ignoring your bills, interest rates are causing the balance you owe to grow every day.

Ignoring your problem would only mean that you are living in a dream land! Don’t be deceived or discouraged. Face it and clean it!

Americans have created billions of dollars worth of debt over the past 45 years, and credit card debt has been an important part of that. Credit card debt dove — along with consumer spending — during the 2008 financial crisis and slow growth has kept total revolving debt at pre-crisis levels, though it is creeping up. According to figures from the Federal Reserve, total U.S. outstanding consumer debt was $3.34 trillion as of February 2015.1 That figure includes car loans, student loans and revolving debt, but not mortgages. Total U.S. outstanding revolving debt, which is chiefly made up of credit card balances, was $884.8 billion as of January 2015.1

Cut down your unnecessary expenses.

Personally, the main key ingredient in getting out of your credit card crises is cutting down on your unwanted expenses. Especially those fashionable, ‘want to have it now’ gadgets and things! It is really the uncontrolled love of things that really gets many people into the credit card crises of many kinds.

Many countries are in many kinds of credit card crises by way of providing benefits to lazy citizens for long periods of time who do not contribute in any way or form to the growth of the economy of the country they are living in!

Start clearing the small debts or credit cards.

Begin by clearing small amounts of debts or credit cards with the least amounts of debt. Bring them to zero and leave them there. Do not cancel them at this time.

Most importantly, do not apply for another credit card to clear yet another credit card! That’s a snow ball which only gets bigger and dangerous as time passes! This does not help in getting out of your credit card crises but complicates it further.

If possible, get help from family and/or friends.

Please ask your family and/or friends to help you get out of your credit card crises. Really concerned family members or friends are more than willing to help you get out of your credit card crises.

If they provide a willing ear, explain to them clearly the predicament you are in. Do not boast about your credit limits. Do not make great promises. Accept you are in trouble and in need of help.

What to do once I am out of my credit card crises ?

Once you are out of your credit card crises, keep your credit card debt to 5% of of the allowed limit. Yes, only 5% of the allowed limit in each credit card that you own!

Use cash, not cards!

Every time we use cash for purchases, pain is registered in the brain! That simply means, we think twice before we make a purchase which very important in keeping out of future credit card crises!

Finally, a word about planning or budgeting.

Plan your purchases ahead of time. We all yield to temptations easily: so we need to guard against it. Before going shopping, set the limit of you purchase amount for that trip and every trip thereafter. This will greatly help in keeping you out of future credit card crises!

Wish you all the best in your journey of getting out of your credit card crises!

For those interested in further studies on credit card crises in America, here is a list of articles that I cited for this post.

Evolution “is a fact,” according to Dawkins!

Dr. Ben Carson, a real scientist, with 67 honorary doctorates disproves/disagrees that Evolution “is a fact,” according to Dawkins! While I do not subscribe to all of Dr. Carson’s religious beliefs, I cannot deny his scientific credentials and works!

Here is Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis explaining the matter in simple words….

On CNN November 1, TV host Fareed Zakaria interviewed atheist/religious zealot* Richard Dawkins. And no surprise, Dawkins, in his usual disparaging style, derided anyone who believes God created the universe and all life and reject the fairy-tale belief that all life arose by natural processes.

Richard Dawkins Chides a Real Scientist | Answers in Genesis

Dawkins particularly disparaged Dr. Ben Carson, running for US President. In this interview, Dawkins made the false claim (that he’s made many times) that “evolution is the bedrock of biology and biology is the bedrock of medicine.” He went on to say this about Dr. Carson: “He clearly doesn’t understand the fundamental theorem of his own subject. That is a terrible indictment.”

Actually, by making such an ignorant and nonsensical statement, Dawkins is disproving his own accusation! Obviously, Dr. Carson didn’t need to believe in evolution to become a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon with sophisticated skills at age 33, receive 67 honorary doctorate degrees, separate conjoined twins, become a member of the Alpha Honor Medical Society, be named to the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished Americans, be picked by Time magazine as one of the nation’s 20 foremost physicians and scientists, for the Library of Congress to select him as one of 89 “Living Legends,” receive the Spingarn Medal (the highest honor bestowed by the NAACP), be awarded in 2008 the Ford’s Theater Lincoln Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush (the United States’ highest civilian honors), and for actor Cuba Gooding Jr. to portray Carson in the TNN television production Gifted Hands in 2009—along with many other accomplishments.

How does that impressive list line up with what Richard Dawkins has accomplished in this world?

And if Dr. Carson can achieve all these accomplishments without believing in evolution, what then does evolution have to do with medicine? As I challenged TV’s Bill Nye “the Science Guy” (and I have also challenged Dawkins), name one technological advancement (including one medical advancement) that could not have come about without a belief in evolution? Well, there are no such examples. Evolution is not the “bedrock” of biology or medicine! Evolution is a fairy tale, akin to reading children the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or of Cinderella and her pumpkin coach!

Karl Andree, aged 74, a British and a cancer patient, faces 350 lashes over homemade alcohol in Saudi Arabia, an Islamic Country!

Why the cruel punishment of lashes for a man who is so well advanced in age? Why not just deport him as a punishment so that his son/family would take care of him? Thereby the Islamic Country, the home of Islamic holy places, would emerge as a merciful State!

Why insist on three hundred and fifty lashes? Their insistence on punishment is so insane!

Do only foreigners make/drink alcohol in the Country? Who were his accomplices in making the liquor at home?

If the Islamic Country was so sober without alcohol for centuries, why no new/great inventions/scientists emerged out of this so sober Country? We should be having millions of them by now all over the world over time!!!

The children of a British man have called on David Cameron to intervene to save their father from being subjected to 350 lashes in Saudi Arabia. Karl Andree, 74, faces being publicly flogged as part of a punishment imposed after bottles of homemade wine were reportedly found last year in his car by Saudi police enforcing strict laws prohibiting alcohol.

The family of the oil executive, who is being held at Jeddah’s Briman prison, say he is already weak as a result of cancer and fear that the flogging will kill him. They said in a statement reported by the Sun: “Our father has given 25 years of his working life to Saudi Arabia, and this is how he is treated. Until his arrest, he has always been happy working there and felt safe.

“He is 74 years of age, has had cancer three times and his wife is dying in a home in the UK. He now needs medical care for his cancer and asthma, and there is no doubt in our mind that 350 lashes will kill him. We implore David Cameron to personally intervene and help get our father home. The Saudi government will only listen to him.”

The Foreign Office said: “Our embassy staff are continuing to assist Mr Andree, including regular visits to check on his welfare, and frequent contact with his lawyer and family. Ministers and senior officials have raised Mr Andree’s case with the Saudi government and we are actively seeking his release as soon as possible.”

Andree’s three children, Hugh, 46, Kirsten, 45, and Simon, 33, are reported to have been lobbying discreetly for their father for more than a month but have now decided to go public.

Mystery Solved: Where did ISIS get brand new Toyota trucks from?

The US Treasury has recently opened an inquiry about the so-called “Islamic State’s” (ISIS/ISIL) use of large numbers of brand-new Toyota trucks. The issue has arisen in the wake of Russia’s air operations over Syria and growing global suspicion that the US itself has played a key role in arming, funding, and intentionally perpetuating the terrorist army across Syria and Iraq.

U.S. counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world’s second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SUVs seen prominently in the terror group’s propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, ABC News has learned.

Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles and is “supporting” the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury Department — part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.

The report went on to cite Iraqi Ambassador to the US, Lukman Faily:

“This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” Faily said. “How could these brand new trucks… these four wheel drives, hundreds of them — where are they coming from?”

Not surprisingly, it appears the US Treasury is asking the wrong party. Instead of Toyota, the US Treasury’s inquiry should have started next door at the US State Department.

Mystery Solved

Just last year it was reported that the US State Department had been sending in fleets of specifically Toyota-brand trucks into Syria to whom they claimed was the “Free Syrian Army.”

Justice served in case of Asia Bibi who was accused of blasphemy against Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has recently upheld a conviction for murder and terrorism against Mumtaz Qadri, the security guard who assassinated Salman Taseer, former Governor of the Punjab province, because of his strong stance against Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws and his unwavering support for Christian mom Asia Bibi

What do you call it when 12 men are drowned at sea for praying to Jesus?

Answer: Religious persecution.

Yet, when a throng of Muslims threw a dozen Christians overboard a migrant ship traveling from Libya to Italy, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi missed the opportunity to label it as such. Standing next to President Obama at their joint news conference Friday, Renzi dismissed it as a one-off event and said, “The problem is not a problem of (a) clash of religions.”

While the prime minister plunged his head into the sand, Italian authorities arrested and charged the Muslim migrants with “multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate,” according to the BBC.